Many people assume life in the White House is a constant glamorous whirl of interesting meetings, fancy dinners, ballroom dances and dazzling entertainment. Ask former First Lady Michelle Obama. She’ll tell you the White House can too often be a kind of limiting prison in which one’s natural spontaneity is constantly squelched by the need for security agents watching every
Now we’ve really lost Tom Emmer
We’ve lost Rep. Tom Emmer. We’ve never really had him you say, and there could be an argument for that position. Emmer rarely visits central Minnesota and much of his financial support comes from outside our area and outside the district. But now we’ve really lost him. Emmer’s GOP colleagues recently appointed him to lead the National Republican Campaign Committee.
Following ‘house rules’ can needlessly prolong family Monopoly games
During the holidays, my extended family engaged in one of our annual traditions, a game of Monopoly. Though my family has played many times before, there is often confusion about the exact rules, as many people have house rules they are used to. With this in mind I decided to read through the official rules once again, and clear up
Not all shoppers are created equal
There’s shopping and then there’s SHOPPING. The definition depends on what you mean by shopping. I’m more of a lower-case shopper. By that I mean I go shopping when I need a specific item. So I’m more of a buyer than a shopper., I’m definitely not a SHOPPER…someone who likes to check out products and dream about what they’d buy
Vaping devices aren’t harmless; ban them
These disgusting e-cigarettes remind me of the “candy cigarettes” we kids bought at Hackert’s Grocery Store some years before we turned on to the real thing – tobacco cigarettes. I sometimes wonder if those candy cigarettes were a “gateway” device that led me later to the real ones. The candy smokes looked like thin chalk sticks with red tips that
65 is no longer a magic number
Life’s milestones are measured in different ways. Births, deaths, weddings, divorces, funerals are markers on life’s timeline. For the more numerically inclined, there are birthdays. The numbers that increase with each trip around the sun clearly stamp crucial passages. A first birthday is always a big deal for a new family member. At 13, the teenage years begin. Sixteen-year-olds look
Will ‘National Restoration’ soon begin?
Come January, the National Restoration just might begin – a restoration of voting integrity, of the rule of law, of checks and balances, of strengthened treaties with our long-time allies, of rededication to environmental health, of renewed respect for science and facts. Time to make America decent again, sane again, democratic again. But will that restoration actually begin? Yes, but
You wouldn’t know it, but I live a life of privilege
I live a privileged life. I don’t worry when I’m walking down the street about that guy I see if he’s following me. When I’m with a group of my friends, I don’t worry about people mistaking us for a gang. In my younger days, I could have a first-floor apartment. Even better, when I get stopped for having a